Blankstein, Alan M.; Cole, Robert W.; Houston, Paul D. (2010). Leadership for Family and Community Involvement. The Soul of Educational Leadership Series. Volume 8. Corwin Because schools are the heart and soul of a community, educational leaders have a responsibility to bring the community into the school, as well as to make the school a part of the surrounding community. This volume in the \Soul of Educational Leadership\ series goes beyond administrative skills to examine educators' pivotal role of leading family and community involvement in school success. With articles written by leading authorities and practitioners in the field, this resource discusses how school leaders can build successful family and community partnerships that flourish even in trying circumstances and over time. Readers will find: (1) Contributions from Alan M. Blankstein, Pedro A. Noguera, Mavis G. Sanders, Paul D. Houston, Edward H. Moore, and others; (2) Inspiring and unique perspectives on the interplay of family and community in school success; and (3) Ideas for engaging families as partners. Contents include: (1) Engaging Families to Enhance Student Success (Alan M…. [Direct]

Hart, Kevin (2010). Security Locks. CURRENTS, v36 n2 p22-24, 26 Feb. According to a 2008 "Year in Review" report by Educational Security Incidents, an online repository that collects data on higher education security issues, the total number of security incidents reported at universities and colleges worldwide rose to 173 in 2008, a 24.5 percent increase over 2007. The number of institutions affected–perhaps the more telling statistic–increased 59 percent from the year before. Unfortunately, the problem of information security will continue to get worse before it gets better, forcing institutions to communicate regularly about data security and high-risk information policy. New laws in several states are spurring change, requiring institutions to publicly report data breaches when they occur. Educational institutions need to have not only a better and more timely view into data breaches, but also a communications policy in place that reaches anyone with physical or virtual access to high-risk security information. Such information can… [Direct]

Brulle, Andrew; Holzhauer, Maike; Kuechle, Jennifer; Lin, Ruey; Morrison, Sally (2010). \Teaching Ms. Kerbin\: A Unique Approach to Student Teacher Reflections and Their Use with Preservice Candidates. Action in Teacher Education, v32 n3 p25-39 Fall. This article examines a unique approach and a new tradition to encouraging student teacher reflection over time. The concept is based on a collection of vignettes titled \Teaching Ms. Kerbin\, which represent the collective reflections of a group of three student teachers. Seven major points of concern are addressed: (1) the first day, (2) working as a team with the cooperating teacher, (3) classroom behavior management, (4) sensitivity to the needs of children with difficult home circumstances, (5) observations by the university supervisor, (6) inclusion practices, and (7) breaking through with a difficult student. These vignettes were presented to a group of candidates just before their methods practicum and student-teaching experiences, and the candidates' comments regarding the usefulness of the vignettes were collected. The same candidates provided additional comments after completion of their student teaching, indicating that several vignettes helped to instill confidence and… [Direct]

Ronnie, Mary A. (1980). Information Services in New Zealand and the Pacific. This paper examines information services and resource sharing within New Zealand with a view to future participation in a Pacific resource sharing network. Activities of the National Library, the New Zealand Library Resources Committee, and the Information Services Committee are reviewed over a 40-year period, illustrating library cooperative efforts that include information exchange, links to British and Australian libraries, a national network for scientific and technical services, national cooperative library services, and online network links to Australia and the United States. Future links with the Pacific area are considered in the light of current resource sharing experience with Southeast Asian nations and the NASA/PEACESAT Pacific-wide information sharing facility. (RAA)…

Cochran Holmes, Ashlee Elizabeth (2013). An Exploration of Middle School Teachers' Essences of Participation in Service-Learning Activities. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of Missouri – Kansas City. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to discover the essence of middle school service-learning teachers' experiences with service-learning. Service-learning is "a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities" (Learn and Serve, 2012, para. 1). For over a century, service-learning has become more widespread in schools across the United States (National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, 2012; Rocheleau, 2004; United We Serve, 2012; Wilczenski & Commey, 2007; Youth Service America, 2011). While some empirical studies have been reported on pre-service teachers and students' experiences, this study seeks to examine the service-learning teachers' experience more closely. Phenomenology is a research paradigm in which the goal is to discover the essence of a particular experience for those who live it. For this study, a… [Direct]

Berryman, Julia C.; Windridge, Kate C. (2000). Verbal Comprehension in Four-Year-Olds as a Function of Maternal Age. Early Child Development and Care, v164 p49-62 Oct. Examined relation of maternal age to 4-year-olds' verbal comprehension and mother-child interactions on a book-sharing task. Found children of mothers ages 35 and over at child's birth scored significantly higher on verbal comprehension than children of younger mothers. Found no maternal age differences on the book-sharing task. Findings pose possible link between maternal age, verbal comprehension, and home environment. (KB)…

Fennell, Hope-Arlene (2008). Walking a Fine Balance: The Life History of a Woman Principal. Journal of Women in Educational Leadership, v6 n2 p93-113 Apr. This article describes the leadership journey of Kathryn, an educational leader, in relation to current research on women's experiences as educational leaders. This life history was developed as a grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) study. Conducted over a two-year period, the semi-structured interviews used to conduct the study were influenced by Van Manen's (1992) work on life history interviews as a means of studying individuals' lived experiences. The interviews were triangulated through field note observations and document analysis. In addition to exemplifying life history as a research method, a framework for studying leadership development emerged based on the themes: commitment, personal competence, sense of self-esteem, reflection, appreciation of others, open communication, problem-solving, power sharing, collaboration, shared decision-making, and sense of visioning. The themes were explored in relation to the early years, the early career, and the leadership… [Direct]

Cutler, Marianne (2007). Sustainable Schools through Science Across the World. Primary Science Review, n99 p26-28 Sep-Oct. Children need new skills if they are to become part of the solution to challenges such as climate change rather than part of the problem. So states the UK's National Framework for Sustainable Schools. Skills include expressing points of view, weighing up evidence, cooperating, thinking critically, tackling real problems, participating in decisions, and making informed choices. Pupils taking part in Science Across the World (SAW) have opportunities to develop these skills and behaviours that enable them to make positive contributions to the Sustainable Schools agenda. In this article, the author explores how pupils enjoy sharing their learning with others from all over the world when they take part in ASE's award-winning SAW programme. (Contains 3 online resources.)… [Direct]

Earl, Lorna; Katz, Steven (2007). Creating New Knowledge: Evaluating Networked Learning Communities. Education Canada, v47 n1 p34-37 Win 2006-2007. In 2004, the authors began an evaluation of England's Networked Learning Communities Program–137 self-selected networks, involving over 1500 schools. The focus of their evaluation has been on identifying promising features and processes as they are being implemented in networked learning communities, and ascertaining the importance of these features to the success of educational networks generally. The next stage was identifying important features of networks that could enable the creation and sharing of knowledge. The authors' analysis identified seven key features: purpose and focus, relationships, collaboration, inquiry, leadership, accountability, and capacity building and support. Here, they discuss what they learned and present some questions to consider about each of the features. (Contains 16 notes.)… [Direct]

Steinhardt, Bernice (2009). Influenza Pandemic: Gaps in Pandemic Planning and Preparedness Need to Be Addressed. Testimony before the Committee on Homeland Security, House of Representatives. GAO-09-909T. US Government Accountability Office As the current H1N1 outbreak underscores, an influenza pandemic remains a real threat to our nation. Over the past 3 years, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted a body of work, consisting of 12 reports and 4 testimonies, to help the nation better prepare for a possible pandemic. In February 2009, GAO synthesized the results of most of this work and, in June 2009, GAO issued an additional report on agency accountability for protecting the federal workforce in the event of a pandemic. GAO's work points out that while a number of actions have been taken to plan for a pandemic, including developing a national strategy and implementation plan, many gaps in pandemic planning and preparedness still remain. This statement covers six thematic areas: (1) leadership, authority, and coordination; (2) detecting threats and managing risks; (3) planning, training, and exercising; (4) capacity to respond and recover; (5) information sharing and communication; and (6) performance… [PDF]

Hartmann, Pascal; Kirkeboen, Stein Erik; Proteasa, Viorel; Stojanovic, Marko; Tabone, Matt; Weber, Regina (2009). The Student Union Development Handbook for a Stronger Student Movement. European Students' Union (NJ1) Empowering students is partly about fighting for students' formal rights. But is it also about ensuring that these rights are filled with content and interpreted in the best interest of the students. Some student unions fight for better parental leave arrangements for PhD students. Some fight for their right to say what they think. Others strive to find finances for their organisation's survival from year to year. But surely, they are all working for the students they represent. This handbook aims at showing the diversity of the European student movement by addressing different facets of student representation. Strategically, the main rationale behind publishing this book is that student representatives and unions should be able to learn from each other's good or bad practices, and grow stronger through the sharing of the organisational wisdom that has been accumulated over the years. This handbook aims at providing a set of useful information, shared by student activists and ESU… [PDF]

Abraham, Sunil George (2011). Evaluating the Impact of a Pattern Structure on Communicating Interaction Design Advice. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Drexel University. This study reports findings from a controlled experiment evaluating the benefits of structuring design advice as patterns. Over the years, the pattern concept from architecture has become a native within the HCI community and its related discussions on sharing design knowledge. It is argued that the context-rich, and tangible, nature of patterns has contributed to its acceptance by the community. And despite a lack of empirical work demonstrating benefits of patterns to design or communication, pattern collections continue to grow in popularity and acceptance. This research responds to the call for much needed empirical work in the area of patterns in HCI, and explores the value of a pattern structure. Our findings suggest that it may be beneficial to combine the strengths (or differences) of each advice structure (pattern and claim) to yield a more robust structure to capture design advice. We arrive on these findings based on evaluating design advice produced using either a pattern… [Direct]

(2009). What about the Kids? 2009 Annual Report. Association for Children of New Jersey Throughout the election year 2009, the Association for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ) asked the question: What about the kids? This annual report discusses how ACNJ placed New Jersey's children first by: (1) Building its state-wide support base–ACNJ's Make Kids Count NJ E-Advocacy network engaged a distribution list of nearly six thousand members who join the association in working on behalf of New Jersey children and families; (2) Promoting local advocacy–ACNJ educated over fifty community advocates in Newark, Trenton and Jersey City through its Community Orientation Courses; (3) Advancing universal health care–ACNJ's assistant director chaired a state task force that implemented measures to increase enrollment in NJ FamilyCare; (4) Improving early education–ACNJ's PreK-3rd Leadership Training sessions provided two hundred school district administrators strategies allowing them to identify and implement high quality early education programs; (5) Empowering through legal… [Direct]

Galvin, Patrick (1986). Sharing among Separately Organized School Districts: Promise and Pitfalls. Motivated by the widespread assumption that voluntary, independent inter-district resource sharing is a strategy for improving educational opportunities in rural areas (with little or no cost to the operation of the school district), this paper critically examines resource sharing in New York State. A review of the literature between 1960 and the present reveals that sharing has been alleged to contribute to flexibility, autonomy, curricular offerings, and lower costs. Among other lines of research it has been argued that sharing would more likely occur when there is no substitute for a given essential service, and some findings indicate the most successful sharing programs are those involving special education, gifted student programs, and vocational or agricultural programs. The discussion draws on business administration literature and experience to supplement what little educational administration research is available on sharing arrangements. A 1982 New York State Education…

Waltuch, Margot (1999). The Montessori Family and Me. NAMTA Journal, v24 n1 p51-60 Win. Provides a glimpse of the Montessori past by sharing letters from and stories about Maria and Mario Montessori. Shares insights and lessons learned over a lifetime's connection the Montessori family. (JS)…

Stanchfield, Jennifer (2007). Setting the Tone. Pathways: The Ontario Journal of Outdoor Education, v19 n4 p31-34 Sum. Introductory activities create a positive environment, enhance performance and set the tone for the rest of the program. Taking time for the group to get comfortable and learn each others' names will pay off later. An engaging opening activity designed to get the group interacting and sharing names, backgrounds and goals in an intriguing way can really maximize the group process. Every facilitator has their own set of favourite opening activities. Many activity books have whole sections on this subject. The author has learned some of the best and most effective activities in her repertoire from other facilitators, experimenting with groups, and adapting activities over time and experience. This article offers a few favourite activities that work to set the tone for most group situations…. [PDF]

Palmer, Barbara C.; Stino, Zandra H. (1998). Improving Self-Esteem of Women Offenders through Process-based Writing in a Learning Circle: An Exploratory Study. Journal of Correctional Education, v49 n4 p142-51 Dec. Over 18 weeks, nine female offenders worked in a collaborative learning circle with process-based writing (prewriting, drafting, sharing, revising, editing, proofreading, publishing). Most showed a significant increase in self-esteem. (SK)…

DeMello, Mary Ann (2011). The Impact of Study Tours in Developing Global-Mindedness among PK-12 Educators in Southeastern Massachusetts. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Northeastern University. College and career readiness requires that PK-12 educators provide a global education, yet many educators have had insufficient professional training to address this need. This mixed methods study investigated the impact of international study tours in the development of global-mindedness among educators participating in a Southeastern Massachusetts (SEM) public school study tour program. Additionally, this study sought to understand the importance and impact of study tour activities on extending thinking and views of education and global perspectives. The sample population was represented by 51 participants of two study tour programs. The quantitative study aspect employed a pre-experimental one group pre-test post-test design. The Global-Mindedness Scale (GMS) (Hett, 1993) was administered as a pre and post-tour survey. An additional post-tour Activity Impact Survey (AIS), containing three additional researcher-developed sections, was also administered to obtain data on the impact… [Direct]

Cleveland, Lara L. (2011). Wrangling Software: Computing Professionals and the Interpretation of Software Ownership in the University Computing Environment. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Minnesota. This project explores the way information about law is transformed into organizational policies and practices. Existing literature emphasizes the state and organized professional groups as primary interpreters of the law and as creators of legal implementation strategies in the organizational setting. This case study of university responses to software-related intellectual property protections focuses on the role of computing professionals in the creation and implementation of university policies and practices related to software ownership. This case challenges and extends existing research about professional construction of the law by examining a loosely organized profession, computing, and a law for which the state provides little or no regulatory enforcement. This research finds that professional boundary maintenance among computing professionals is difficult in a labor force environment where demand for professionals outpaces the availability of persons to do the work…. [Direct]

Abramova, Inna (2011). Making Meaning of Work: Uncovering the Complexity of Immigrant Experience in a Multicultural Landscape. Multicultural Perspectives, v13 n4 p209-214. Many educators draw the public's attention to the need for diversifying the teaching force. They argue that teachers from diverse cultures offer a variety of perspectives, encourage students to participate in community work, and exhibit cultural awareness and appreciation of differences. One of the ways to diversify the teaching force includes involving more minority students in teacher education programs. Another strategy is to hire immigrant teachers who have teaching qualifications from their countries of origin. Alternative certification programs allow immigrant teachers to obtain certification without completing a campus-based teacher education program. In reality, many immigrants work in schools. Some of them had to overcome obstacles to become teachers and adjust to existing cultural norms; others occupy secondary positions in schools and are viewed as linguistically incompetent due to their accents. Many minority immigrant teachers are marginalized due to their racial… [Direct]

(1977). Consortium for Sharing Instructional Materials. Occupational Education Research Project. Final Report. A consortium was formed to experiment in sharing instructional ideas and materials among the membership of the North Carolina community college system for the purpose of improving the quality and efficiency of instruction by increasing the availability of high quality instructional materials while at the same time decreasing the costly duplication of effort in developing such materials. Representatives at member institutions located and screened materials for input to a clearinghouse, and they handled negotiations involving sharing among institutions. The clearinghouse maintained detailed listings of its materials and distributed a newsletter describing new materials available and communicating consortium internal affairs information. The project was considered successful in that 53 of the 57 North Carolina community colleges had joined the consortium and over 200 listings of materials had been received. However, the actual amount of sharing was difficult to pinpoint and promotion…

Alsmirat, Mohammad Abdullah (2013). Maximizing Resource Utilization in Video Streaming Systems. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Wayne State University. Video streaming has recently grown dramatically in popularity over the Internet, Cable TV, and wire-less networks. Because of the resource demanding nature of video streaming applications, maximizing resource utilization in any video streaming system is a key factor to increase the scalability and decrease the cost of the system. Resources to utilize include server bandwidth, network bandwidth, battery life in battery operated devices, and processing time in limited processing power devices. In this work, we propose new techniques to maximize the utilization of video-on-demand (VOD) server resources. In addition to that, we propose new framework to maximize the utilization of the network bandwidth in wireless video streaming systems. Providing video streaming users in a VOD system with expected waiting times enhances their perceived quality-of-service (QoS) and encourages them to wait thereby increasing server utilization by increasing server throughput. In this work, we analyze… [Direct]

Lefrere, Paul; Mason, Jon; Norris, Donald M. (2006). Making Knowledge Services Work in Higher Education. EDUCAUSE Review, v41 n5 p84-86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100 Sep-Oct. Over the past three years, knowledge-based practices in higher education have advanced, driving the development of low/no-cost, mass-market tools for knowledge sharing and reducing some barriers to change. New investors in higher education are developing strategies to exploit the knowledge-driven value propositions. Existing institutions, anxious to maintain their position in a fast-changing world, are also taking notice. The latter are finding that past investments (e.g., in e-learning, knowledge management, and information technology) can indeed live up to the promises made for them, if knowledge sharing is encouraged and used to drive necessary change in technology, services, and culture. This article discusses the basics of \e-knowledge\ and knowledge services, the potential benefits of knowledge services, and examples of knowledge services that could be implemented at institutions of higher learning. (Contains 1 table and 19 notes.)… [Direct]

Agar, Richard; Curry, Cathy; Manado, Mark; Wallace, Ruth (2008). Working from Our Strengths: Partnerships in Learning. International Journal of Training Research, v6 n2 p75-91. Over the past four years a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners in learning research across Northern Australia have identified many of the issues that underpin the implementation of training and investment through enterprise development to improve economic and community outcomes of Indigenous partners. This paper provides an overview of a series of recent projects developed around enterprise development and training. The issues that the project teams have explored include developing industry, community and training institutional partnerships in the recognition of diverse knowledge systems within the recognition of prior learning process, the role of digital literacy's in sharing knowledge, the co-production of knowledge and work-based learning. The paper then foreshadows the future directions of this work; addressing a range of issues such as infrastructure, funding, technology and identifying relevant skills sets. Approaches to sustainable enterprise learning and… [Direct]

Bandalos, Deborah L. (2008). Is Parceling Really Necessary? A Comparison of Results from Item Parceling and Categorical Variable Methodology. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, v15 n2 p211-240 Apr. This study examined the efficacy of 4 different parceling methods for modeling categorical data with 2, 3, and 4 categories and with normal, moderately nonnormal, and severely nonnormal distributions. The parceling methods investigated were isolated parceling in which items were parceled with other items sharing the same source of variance, and distributed parceling in which items were parceled with items influenced by different factors. These parceling strategies were crossed with strategies in which items were either parceled with similarly distributed or differently distributed items, to create 4 different parceling methods. Overall, parceling together items influenced by different factors and with different distributions resulted in better model fit, but high levels of parameter estimate bias. Across all parceling methods, parameter estimate bias ranged from 20% to over 130%. Parceling strategies were contrasted with use of the WLSMV estimator for categorical, unparceled data…. [Direct]

Bittanti, Matteo; Boyd, Danah; Herr-Stephenson, Becky; Horst, Heather; Ito, Mizuko; Lange, Patricia G.; Pascoe, C.J.; Robinson, Laura (2008). Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Social network sites, online games, video-sharing sites, and gadgets such as iPods and mobile phones are now fixtures of youth culture. They have so permeated young lives that it is hard to believe that less than a decade ago these technologies barely existed. Today's youth may be coming of age and struggling for autonomy and identity as did their predecessors, but they are doing so amid new worlds for communication, friendship, play, and self-expression. This white paper summarizes the results of a three-year ethnographic study, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, examining young people's participation in the new media ecology. It represents a condensed version of a longer treatment of the project findings. The study was motivated by two primary research questions: How are new media being integrated into youth practices and agendas? How do these practices change the dynamics of youth-adult negotiations over literacy, learning, and authoritative knowledge?… [PDF]

Austin, Brenda (2008). Language of the People Forever: Bay Mills Spins Thread Tying Ojibwa Communities Together. Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education, v19 n3 p28-31 Spr. Why would anyone want to spend thousands of hours away from home and pay hundreds of dollars in tuition to acquire one of the world's most difficult languages? For Anishinaabe people, that is an easy question to answer. The Ojibwe language is the thread that ties communities together and unites all Anishinaabe as one people sharing a common culture. Ojibwa (also known as Anishinaabe or Chippewa) people live around the world. There are over 30 distinct tribal entities or reservations of Ojibwa living throughout their original homelands in the northern United States (Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana) and about the same number of First Nations in southern Canada (Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan). Bay Mills Community College (BMCC, Brimley, Michigan) serves its Ojibwa community in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, offering classes based in tribal culture, similar to what other tribally controlled colleges do. However, it has found an important niche for itself… [Direct]

(2010). Protecting Our Priorities: 2010 Annual Report. Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education What does "protecting our priorities" mean in an era when economic realities require that institutions of higher education trim their budgets while also providing critical education and training to more and more students–those "human resources" whose skills will be the key to any economic turnaround? This is a question WICHE addresses every day. For over 50 years, WICHE has helped states deal with scarcity: it was founded specifically to assist states that lacked important resources–specifically, medical, dental and vet schools–to find a way to train the physicians, dentists and veterinarians they needed. Since those early days, WICHE has worked to provide states and institutions with the programs, tools, and research to improve access to higher education–including hundreds of professional, graduate, and undergraduate programs–and to ensure that students succeed. At the core of all its efforts are three elements: efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation. Its… [PDF]

Moccero, D. (2008). Delivering Cost-Efficient Public Services in Health Care, Education and Housing in Chile. OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 606. OECD Publishing (NJ1) The Chilean authorities plan to raise budgetary allocations over the medium term for a variety of social programmes, including education, health care and housing. This incremental spending will need to be carried out in a cost-efficient manner to make sure that it yields commensurate improvements in social outcomes. Chile's health indicators show that it fares relatively well in relation to comparator countries in the OECD area and in Latin America. But this is less so in the case of education, where secondary and tertiary educational attainment remain low, despite a significant increase over the years, and performance is poor on the basis of standardised test scores, such as PISA. Even though comparison with countries in the OECD area is difficult, a sizeable housing deficit has yet to be closed in Chile. To meet these various challenges, efforts will need to be stepped up to: i) narrow the disparities in performance that currently exist among schools with students from varying… [Direct]

(2011). The EPIC Leadership Development Program Evaluation Report. Research Brief. New Leaders for New Schools (NJ1) New Leaders for New Schools created the Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) initiative in 2006 to learn from educators driving achievement gains in high-need urban schools. EPIC identifies school leaders and teachers whose students are making significant achievement gains and financially rewards these educators in exchange for sharing and documenting the practices that have contributed to the gains. Since 2006, New Leaders has awarded over $15.5 million to EPIC partner districts and charter schools and led them in a rigorous examination of their practices, culminating in the publication of video cases and practice profiles on the online EPIC Knowledge System. In 2009, New Leaders introduced the EPIC Leadership Development Model as a way to make these practices more widely available. Leveraging the rich resources of the Knowledge System, which now contains more than 200 case studies of effective practices from award-winning schools, the model offers school leaders within… [PDF]